Hello folks,

Every once in a while somebody needs to handle packages that are handed
over in formats such as RPM or DEB. That is often the case with office
suites such as LibreOffice and with enterprise software distributed
internally at some companies.

Since GoboLinux does not need a database to keep track of which packages
are installed or where files were installed, using the rpm utility will not
work, for instance. One needs to manually extract the contents from the
third-party package and move them to an entry under /Programs to have that
program "activated". Further, some packages will want to install files
under /opt -- and manually managing /opt can be a misery.

So, here comes the ThirdPartyInstallers utilities -- a set of tools to
enable the installation of packages in non-native formats to GoboLinux.
Version 1.0 debuts with the basic features to support the installation of
RPM packages, including:

- Merging multiple RPMs to a single entry on /Programs
- Flattening /opt under the entry at /Programs and creating compatibility
links from /opt back to /Programs
- Dependencies resolution that includes searches on RPMFind.net, on the
GoboLinux recipe store, and on the list of installed programs under
/Programs
- Creation of GoboLinux meta-data such as Architecture, Description,
Revision, and UnmanagedFiles

Please note that installing third-party packages is always a best-effort
task. There is absolutely *no guarantee* that they will work at all.
Moreover, the tool has been written with simple packages and
distro-agnostic packages in mind. It will *not* work with complex packages
such as KDE. Lastly, if there is a GoboLinux recipe for a given program,
please use the Compile tool instead.

For all of you interested in giving it a try, please run:

$ InstallPackage RPM
$ Compile ThirdPartyInstallers

For further instructions and bug reports, please visit:
https://github.com/gobolinux/ThirdPartyInstallers

Thanks!
Lucas
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